Red Bull have claimed they have already decided their set-up to ensure Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez can beat Ferrari at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has said the team is not against developing the car in different ways to suit tracks this season.
In particular, he was looking at how downforce and drag packages could be used to get the best result.
Monaghan said: “I think Baku will pull everybody in one particular direction. I think Silverstone, that could produce a bit of difference, shall we say? Spielberg wants to produce a bit of difference.
“On Hungary, I expect there’ll be a convergence again, but that’s track nature and how we best exploit our lap time, isn’t it? So at the moment, I’d say we’ve got our trade reasonably good. But come [the final race in] Abu Dhabi we might have got it right or wrong.”
Upgrades and development are set to be an important part of the season as teams battle with F1’s new £115million ($140m) budget cap rules.
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However, Red Bull has claimed they are still learning from Ferrari’s car to ensure they stay one step ahead of their rivals. Monaghan said: “We can look at what the Ferrari is good and bad at. And I think it would be naive of us not to.
“They tend to be quite strong [at] low speed. And then we tend to be better in other areas of the circuit. And there’s a big visual clue if you look occasionally as to how we’ve achieved our lap time and they have achieved theirs.”
